Pineapple recoring, segmenting and chunking

ABSTRACT

Contour peeled and precored pineapple halves are continuously advanced, cut face down, along a planar support having a rib which guides the halves by their precore recesses. The halves are then passed over a rotary loop knife projecting up through the support which removes the remainder of the core material and the recored halves are then guided by a larger rib fitted into the recore recesses. The guided halves then pass beneath radial segmenting knives which are backed up by downstream radial guide plates and the segmented halves are projected past the end of the support into the path of a rotary chunking knife. The rotary chunking knife has an offset gauge plate for receiving the fruit ends and a spiral edged slicing knife parallel to the gauge plate adjacent the end of the support, with the gauge plate terminating circumferentially while the knife is still slicing and with the knife terminating circumferentially at the off-set pineapple receiving portion of the gauge plate.

United States Patent [191 Vadas [111 3,826,185 [451 July 30, 1974 4] PINEAPPLE RECORING, SEGMENTING AND CHUNKING [52] US. Cl 99/548, 99/563, 99/564 [51] Int. Cl. A47j 25/00, B26d 4/06 [58] Field of Search 99/562-564,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1933 Walter 99/543 X 3,642,043 2/1972 Vadas 3,656,529 4/1972 Vadas.....-. 99/564 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 700,669 l2/l953 Great Britain 99/564 [57] ABSTRACT Contour peeled and precored pineapple halves are continuously advanced, cut face down, along a planar support having a rib which guides the halves by their precore recesses. The halves are then passed over a rotary loop knife projecting up through the support which removes the remainder of the core material and the recored halves are then guided by a larger rib fitted into the recore recesses. The guided halves then pass beneath radial segmenting knives which are backed up by downstream radial guide plates and the segmented halves are projected past the end of the support into the path of a rotary chunking knife. The rotary chunking knife has an offset gauge plate for receiving the fruit ends and a spiral edged slicing knife parallel to the gauge plate adjacent the end of the support, with the gauge plate terminating circumferentially while the knife is still slicing and with the knife terminating circumferentially at the off-set pineapple receiving portion of the gauge plate.

s reuies i si PAIENTEBJuLsmsn SHEET sur's mm uuHnhmnl PINEAPPLE RECORING, SEGMENTING AND CHUNKING FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to fruit processing and-more specifically to the recoring, segmenting and chunking of pineapple halves.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Apparatus for sequential slitting of contour peeled pineapples into halves and guiding the halves on divergent paths forms the subject matter of Vadas, Ser. No. 233,130, filed Mar. 9, 1972 assigned to Castle and Cook, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,665.

A rotary tubular recoring knife for pineapple halves guided by their core recesses forms the subject matter of the copending application of Vadas, Ser. No. 54,177, filed July 13, 1970, assigned to Castle and Cook now U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,043.

A divergent path pineapple half guiding system using guide ribs in the core recesses is disclosed in the copending application of Vadas, Ser. No. 855,520, filed Sept. 5, 1969, also assigned to the Castle and Cook now U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,529.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART The U.S. Pat. to Thompson 2,108,951 Feb. 22, 1938,

shows a machine for dicing vegetables. A fiat ribbon of I material passes up and over curved stripper bars 20 after having been longitudinally slit by rotary chain knives, backed up by two speed wheels 6. The slit material is diced by a rotary helical knife 22.

In the U.S. Pat. to Duncan 1,769,664, July 1, 1930, pear halves are cut and placed face down by intermittant drive belts which stop over a loop knife for removing the seed cells.

In the U.S. Pat. to Nicol] et al. 2,187,326, Jan. 16, 1940, precored pineapple cylinders are advanced through a guide throat 12 over a vertical slitting knife 3. The slit pineapples are separated by spreader plates 20 and the halves fall cut faces up into divergent trough conveyors 23. The halves are advanced over rotary tubular recoring knives and then segmented by fixed blades 32 after which they pass over a single bladed rotary slicer 62 which is synchronized with the other parts to produce uniform, conical, helical type slices.

The U. S. Pat. to Farmer 3,246,678, April 19, 1966 shows the use of overhead pusher belts for advancing pineapples through a rotary sizer.

The U.S. Pat. to Taylor 2,034,160, Mar. 17, 1935, shows a series of fixed radial segmenting knives for pineapples.

The use of rotary radial slitting knives for slicing fruit or the like is shown in the U.S. Pat. to Drew 1,242,381, Oct. 9, 1917; Gardner 2,021,300, Nov. 19, 1935; Albertoli 2,120,385, June 14, 1938; and others.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, precored and contour peeled pineapple halves are formed into advanced along a support with their cut faces down, guided by their precore recesses, and advanced over a rotary, double loop recoring knife projecting from below. The record halves are guided by their recore recesses and assisted in their advancing motion by an overhead transfer belt which pushes them end to end beneath an array of radial segmenting knives. The segmenting knives are backed up at their downstream edges by stationary radial fruit guide plates that guide the segmented halves by means of their newly formed segment cuts. The segmented halves are advanced past the end of the support, which is flat and straight in the area just described. Thus the leading end of a fruit is pushed against a rotating gauge offset from the end of the support by slightly more than the chunk thickness. A parallel, spiral edge but flat faced slicing knife rotates on the same axis, which knife is disposed just adjacent to but clearing the end of the fruit support. The gauge plate has a tongue that terminates circumferentially at the offset, fruit receiving portion of the gauge plate. This structure, including the back up guides at the segmenter, provides accurately sized, flat chunks shile maintaining control of the segmented halves during the chunking operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side view of a pineapple processing machine embodying the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are sections taken as indicated of FIG. 1.

In these figures the details of the framework have been omitted for clarity and are not critical to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the apparatus at the recoring knife.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 are sections taken as indicated of FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged section taken at the recoring knife.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the operations performed on a pineapple half by the apparatus of the present invention.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are perspective views (segmenting knives omitted for clarity) showing the slicing operation.v

FIG. 12 is an enlarged section through the back up guides through the segmenting knife.

FIGS. 13 24 are operational diagrams including views taken as illustrated on FIGS. 13, 16, 19 and 22.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE APPARATUS The essential details of an apparatus embodying the present invention are shown in simplified form in FIGS. 1, 2'and 3. The contour peeled and precored pineapple halves P are introduced into the apparatus by a conveyor belt 12, having a flexible longitudinal guide rib 14 that fits the precore hole 23 (FIG. 5) of each fruit half. Only the driving pulley 16 of the belt 12 is illustrated and this pulley is driven in a conventional manner by means not shown. Normally, the pineapple halves P will be fed to the belt 12 in end to end, spaced relation. The belt 12 delivers the pineapple halves to a flat, straight, and elongated planar support plate 20 having a longitudinal central rib 22 that also fits the precore hole 23, as best seen in FIG. 5. The fruit halves are advanced in abutting end to end relation over a rotary loop type recoring knife R (FIG. 4), which forms a larger, recore groove 25 (FIG. 7). The recore hole 25 makes a good fit with a larger guide rib 24 (FIG. 7) formed on the downstream portion of the platform 20 (FIGS. 1 and 4). As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the platform 20 is apertured at 26 to clear the loop knife R which is mounted on a shaft that is below the platform.

Referring back to FIG. 1, as the pineapple halves P are delivered to the platform 20 by the belt 12, they are picked up by an overhead conveyor belt 30 having a drive pulley 32 and an idler pulley 34. In order to flex and hold the belt 30 against the upper surfaces of the pineapple halves, rollers 36 are mounted on arms 28 pivoted to the frame at 37 in a convenient manner (not shown) and spring urged towards the fruit by springs 39 which are likewise backed up by fixed spring supports illustrated diagrammatically in FIG. 1. The belt 30 assists in advancing the fruit through the remaining operations, and also brings the pineapples in end to end relationship so that a pushing action on pineapples under the belt 30 is transmitted to downstream pineapples by direct abutment between the halves.

The end to end row of pineapples then passes beneath an array of radially disposed segmenting knives indicated generally -at S, best shownin FIG. 3. These knives rotate in a direction which causes friction between the knives and the fruit to assist in advance of the fruit, and lifting of the fruit by the up turning sides of the knives is prevented by spring loaded rods 40 pivoted to the frame (not shown) at 41 and held down by springs 42 backed up by brackets on the frame. One of the fingers 40 is disposed to bear on each segment produced by the segmenting knives (FIG. 12). The details of the manner of mounting and driving the individual segmenting knives 44 are not critical to the invention and means for mounting radial knives of this type on the frame and for driving them are known in the art.

For example, individual knives 44 can be mounted in bearings (not shown) on the frame and connected by universal joints as in the US. Pat. to Albertoli 2,120,385 or Drew 1,244,038. Alternatively they can be mounted on flexible shafts such as in Gardner 2,031,300. The two ends of the universal joint or flexible shaft assembly, whichever is selected, that mounts the knives 44 are supported in the frame by suitable bearings 45.

As seen in FIGS. 12, after being segmented by the knives 44 of the knife assembly S (omitted in these Figures), the pineapple segments ride between a radial array of backup guide plates or blades 50, which plates pass through the segment cuts s indicated in FIG. 9. The pineapples are then projected into a rotary slicing or chunking knife C which makes the transverse, slicing type cuts c shown in FIG. 9. These operations result in the formation of geometrically uniform chunks k as can also be seen in FIG. 9, and which are indicated in FIG. 1.

The details of driving the parts shown in FIGS. 1 -3 are not critical to the present invention. It is not essential that the various parts be synchronized with the chunking knife C because this device automatically gauges the fruit as long as the fruit are continually urged into the chunking knife, as by the structure just described. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3 which show a suitable drive mechanism, an electric motor 60 drives a belt 62, which drives a pulley 63 on a cross shaft 64 that turns a right angle gear box 65. In order to drive the overhead pusher belt 30 that assists in feeding the pineapples into the machine, a pulley 66 on the aforesaid crossshaft 64 (FIG. 3) drives a belt 67 which turns a pulley 68 on an upper cross shaft 69 mounted in the frame in any convenient manner. A pulley 70 on the upper cross shaft 69 (FIG. 3) drives a belt 71 (FIG. 1) which in turn drives a pulley 72 (FIG. 2) on a cross shaft 73 mounted on the frame in any convenient manner and which mounts the drive pulley 32 for the overhead pusher belt 30 (FIG. 1).

In order to drive the recoring knife R a pulley 76 (FIG. 3) on the gear box cross shaft 64 drives a belt 77 which drives a pulley 78 on the recoring knife shaft 79. The knife shaft 79 is keyed to the hub 80 (FIG. 4) of the loop knife R.

The individual circular knives 44 of the slicing knife assembly S are driven from a pulley 80 (FIG. 3) on the upper cross shaft 69 by means of a belt 81 that drives a pulley 82 mounted adjacent the vertical knife 44 connected to the series of universal jointed shafts that connect the various knives 44 in a manner known in the art and not critical to the present invention.

In order to drive the chunking knife C from the angle gear box 65 (FIG. 1), the gear box 65 has a longitudinal output shaft 85 which drives a gear box 86 having an output shaft 87. The output shaft 87 drives a sprocket 88, a chain 89 and a sprocket 90 (FIGS. 1 and 2) mounted on the shaft 92 of the chunker knife CsThe shaft 92 is supported in bearings (not shown) in the frame, it being understood that conventional engineering details of this type are not critical to the invention. The chunker knife C is self-clearing and releases the sector shaped uniformly sized chunks k which drop onto a take-away chute or conveyor illustrated schematically at 94 in FIG. 1.

Recoring Knife FIGS. 4 8 show in more detail the action occuring at the recoring knife R, the pineapple halves P being pushed over this knife by the overhead belt 30 previously described. The halves are initially guided by the smaller ribs 22 (FIG. 5) disposed in their precore holes 23. The knife R is a double bladed loop knife, with the loops 96 and 96a projecting diametrically from the hub 80 (FIG. 6). These loops have a radius r" indicated in FIG. 6 such that the precore hole 25, although it is slightly scalloped, has a basic internal diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the recore rib 24 (FIG. 7), previously described. In order to provide a hold-down action on the fruit as the core material is removed by the recore knife R, and as indicated in FIG. 8, the knife loops have a double tapered construction. The outer periphery of each loop, such as the loop 96a shown in FIG. 8, is relieved by a small acute angle a, which angle in the preferred embodiment being described is about 7". The loop knife tapers to a cutting edge because the inner periphery of the knife forms a small angle b of about 10 with the outer surface thereof. In other words, the inner periphery of the knife is a total angle of 17 from a plane that is tangent to the rotational path of the knife. As can be seen from FIG. 7, the knife construction just described exerts a holddown action on the core material being removed by the recoring operation. The recore hole or groove 25 is slightly scalloped, but the high rotational speed of the recore knife R minimizes this effect and .provides a functionally straight recore groove.

Backup Guides As seen in FIG. 12 and as also appears in FIGS. and 111, there are five backup guide blades or plates 50 one for each radial segmenting knife 44. As shown in FIGS. 10 12, the blades 50 restrain the individual seg-' ments formed by the slicing knives 44 from lateral displacement by the chunker knife C. However, these blades do not interfere with the forward motion of the pineapples into the chunker knife because the blades 50 form wedge shaped pockets, and the individual segments can relieve themselves against frictional binding slightly (FIG. 12) while guided against lateral displacement. FIG. 12 also shows how the hold-down rods 40 (see also FIG. 1) somewhat upstream of the blades 50, assist in maintaining the segments in their normal positions. The blades 50 are mounted on the end of the recore guide rib 24 downstream of the knives 44.

Chunker Knife The chunker or slicer knife C is an automatic gauging and slicing assembly which provides uniform thickness chunks k, despite constant endwise pressure of the pineapples against the knife. The essential elements of the chunker knife are a peculiarly shaped gauge plate 100, and a flat slicer knife 102 having a spiral cutting edge 104 that is axially offset from the gauge plate 100, and towards the platform 20, by the thickness of the chunks. The knife 102 is joined to the leading end of the gauge plate 100 by a narrow, spokelike plate 106 (FIG. 10) and both gauge plate 100 and slicing plate 102 are brazed to a hub 108 secured to the shaft 92 previously described. The gauge plate 100 has a full radius portion 109 from which projects a circumferentially extending lip 110 that is radially spaced from the adjacent spiral cutting edge 104 of the knife 102 to provide a clearance gap g allows flexing of the chunk k being sliced by the knife 100 and thus prevents binding during formation of the chunks.

Operation of the Chunker Knife FIGS. 13, 16, 19 and 22 with their associated right and left sectional views show various steps in the operation of the chunker knife C.

Referring to FIGS. 13 15, the segmented pineapple halves P, backed up by the radial back-up blades or plates 50, have just been cleared by the offset plate 106 that joins the spiral knife 102 to the gauge plate 100 and hence the ends of the segmented ends of the pineapples are facing the major diameter portion 109 of the gauge plate 100, ready to be pushed by the feed mechanism previously described against the gauge plate. This condition is most clearly seen in FIG. 15.

In FIGS. 16 18 the chunker knife C has rotated about 90 from the previously illustrated condition and the leading, segmented pineapple half P has all segments in engagement with the major diameter portion 109 of the gauge plate 100 which represents the conclusion of the feed operation. As seen in FIG. 16, the smaller radius portion of the spiral cutting edge 104 of the slicing knife 102 is approaching the projecting end of the pineapple that will be sliced into chunks.

FIGS. 19 21 illustrate the slicing operation. Here the end of the pineapple is being backed up by the lip 110 of the gauge plate 100 and the spiral cutting edge 104 of the slicing knife 102 has started to slice through the projecting end of the pineapple. As previously mentioned, and as shown in FIG. 19A the small gap g prevents binding of the chunks k as they are formed which provides a quick self-releasing action on the chunks.

In FIGS. 22 24 the projecting end of the pineapple has been fully sliced into chunks k by the spiral cutting edge 104 of the slicing knife 100. The slicing knife restrains feeding of the pineapple until the offset plate 106 is brought around in front of the projecting end of the pineapple, which will occur about of rotation after the condition shown in FIG. 19. Thus, the flat knife 102 acts as an automatic stop for holding these pineapples in their sliced position so that uniform thickness chunks are produced.

Thus it can be seen that in the apparatus of the present invention, precored pineapple halves are recored by loop knife which holds the pineapples against their support 22 as they are guided by both their precore and their recore grooves or holes. The loop type recore knife R does not produce a perfectly semi cylindrical recore hole but produces a slightly scalloped hole, but due to the high speed of rotation of the recore knife the scallps that form the recore hole 25 (FIG. 8) deviate but slightly from a true semi cylinder. The pineapples are assisted in their advance by an overhead pusher belt 30 and after leaving the recore knife R they advance end to end under the array of segmenting knives S. Hold down rods 40 assist in holding down the segments formed by the slicing knives 44 of the slicing knife assembly S, and the segmented pineapples are retained against lateral motion by scallops-selfclearing back up plates 50. The pineapples are projected against a flat, rotating back up plate forming part of the chunker knife C. The projecting ends of the segmented pineapples are sliced off by a flat, spiral edge knife 102, offset from the rotating back up plate 100 by the desired thickness of the chunks k. As a result of the various cooperating features of this apparatus complete control of the fruit and portions thereof is provided during the recoring, segmenting chunking operations, and uniform, geometrical chunks k are produced.

Typical Operating Characteristics Feed 70 100 pineapples/min, 6 inches 8 inches long.

Recore Knife R 19/32 inches radius loop (r, FIG. 6) 2 13/32 inches overall diameter 1,800 7,000 RPM 1 segmenting knives 44 10 inches diameter, 100

RPM

Chunker knife C 13 inches diameter, 500 RPM offset for about one-half inch thick chunks.

Although the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention has been herein shown and described, it will be apparent that modification and variation may be made without departing from what is regarded to be the subject matter of the invention.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for slicing peeled and precored pineapple halves, said apparatus being of the type comprising a support, means for advancing the halves cut face down along said support, first rib means on said support for guiding the halves by their precored recesses, said rib means terminating at a rotary recoring knife projecting up through said support for producing recored halves, and larger rib means on said support for guiding the recored halves by their recore recesses; the improvement comprising a set of radial knives above said larger rib means for segmenting the halves along their length, a set of fixed radial guides projecting up from said larger rib means just downstream of said radial knives and forming continuations of the latter, and a transverse rotary slicer assembly at the end of said support and adjacent the downstream edges of said radial guides for slicing the segmented halves into chunks, said radial guides backing up the segments against transverse forces from said slicer assembly, said recoring knife comprising a multiple blade loop knife, a shaft for said loop knife mounted below and extending transversely of said support, the outer edge of said knife being inclined toward the knife shaft axis in a direction away from the cutting edge by a small acute angle, the inner edge of said knife being so inclined by a somewhat larger acute angle for providing a hold-down action of the fruit during recoring.

2. Apparatus for slicing peeled and precored pineapple halves, said apparatus being of the type comprising a support, means for advancing the halves cut face down along said support, first rib means on said support for guiding the halves by their precored recesses, said rib means terminating at a rotary recoring knife projecting up through said support for producing recored halves, and larger rib means on said support for guiding the recored halves by their recore recesses; the improvement comprising a set of radial knives above said larger rib means for segmenting the halves along their length, a set of fixed radial guides projecting up from said larger rib means just downstream of said radial knives and forming continuations of the latter, and a transverse rotary slicer assembly at the end of said support and adjacent the downstream edges of said radial guides for slicing the segmented halves into chunks, said radial guides backing up-ithe segments against transverse forces from said slice r assembly.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said rotary slicer assembly comprises a flat gauge plate lying in a plane perpendicular to the direction of pineapple advance for receiving the ends of unsliced fruit, said gauge plate being spaced from the end of said support by the desired chunk thickness, and a flat, spiral edge slicing knife plate at the end of said support rotating with, parallel to and axially offset from said gauge plate, said gauge plate terminating circumferentially while said knife plate is still engaged by the sliced end of the fruit, said knife plate terminating circumferentially at the axially offset, pineapple receiving portion of said gauge plate.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CETIFICATE 0F CORRECTION PATENT NO. 1 3,826,185

DATED July 30 1974 lN\/ENTOR(S) i LESLIE VADAS It is certified that error appears in the ah0veidentified patent and that said Letters Patent Q are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 1, line 15: change "3,700,665" to 3 ,760,665.

Column 2, line 4: change "record to recored-;

lines 9 and 20 after "circumferentially" insert behind the knife, and the knife terminates circumferentially-.

Column 5, line 37: after "g" insert shown in Figures 13 O and 19a. The gap "g"-.

Column 6, line 22: change "scallps" to scallops;

line 30: after "by" delete "scallops" and insert the.

Column 7, line 16: change "of" to --on.

0 gincd and Scaled this fifth ay 0f August 1975 BEAR.)

Arrest: C

RUN? C. MASON C. MARSHALL DANN AIHSII'HK Offifl ('mnmissium'r nflarenrs and Trademarks 

1. Apparatus for slicing peeled and precored pineapple halves, said apparatus being of the type comprising a support, means for advancing the halves cut face down along said support, first rib means on said support for guiding the halves by their precored recesses, said rib means terminating at a rotary recoring knife projecting up through said support for producing recored halves, and larger rib means on said support for guiding the recored halves by their recore recesses; the improvement comprising a set of radial knives above said larger rib means for segmenting the halves along their length, a set of fixed radial guides projecting up from said larger rib means just downstream of said radial knives and forming continuations of the latter, and a transverse rotary slicer assembly at the end of said support and adjacent the downstream edges of said radial guides for slicing the segmented halves into chunks, said radial guides backing up the segments against transverse forces from said slicer assembly, said recoring knife comprising a multiple blade loop knife, a shaft for said loop knife mounted below and extending transversely of said support, the outer edge of said knife being inclined toward the knife shaft axis in a direction away from the cutting edge by a small acute angle, the inner edge of said knife being so inclined by a somewhat larger acute angle for providing a hold-down action of the fruit during recoring.
 2. Apparatus for slicing peeled and precored pineapple halves, said apparatus being of the type comprising a support, means for advancing the halves cut face down along said support, first rib means on said support for guiding the halves by their precored recesses, said rib means terminating at a rotary recoring knife projecting up through said support for producing recored halves, and larger rib means on said support for guiding the recored halves by their recore recesses; the improvement comprising a set of radial knives above said larger rib means for segmenting the halves along their length, a set of fixed radial guides projecting up from said larger rib means just downstream of said radial knives and forming continuations of the latter, and a transverse rotary slicer assembly at the end of said support and adjacent the downstream edges of said radial guides for slicing the segmented halves into chunks, said radial guides backing up the segments against transverse forces from said slicer assembly.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said rotary slicer assembly comprises a flat gauge plate lying in a plane perpendicular to the direction of pineapple advance for receiving the ends of unsliced fruit, said gauge plate being spaced from the end of said support by the desired chunk thickness, and a flat, spiral edge slicing knife plate at the end of said support rotating with, parallel to and axially offset from said gauge plate, said gauge plate terminating circumferentially while said knife plate is still engaged by the sliced end of the fruit, said knife plate terminating circumferentially at the axially offset, pineapple receiving portion of said gauge plate. 